The topic of creating a “Casual Raiding Guild” has come up recently both at the World of Matticus and Of Teeth and Claws. Their approaches to the problem of the “Casual Raiding Guild” (the newest oxymoron in the WoW lexicon) are a little different from my perspective, so I thought I’d chime in.
There are two kinds of players in World of Warcraft. The casuals and the raiders. And like the Montagues and the Capulets, they have been at war for quite some time. It didn’t start in WoW, and it won’t end here. It’s just the way things are. Some players have all the time in the world to devote to gaming, and others have mere scraps here and there. As you all know, I have always been in the latter category.
I am in what you would call a casual guild. It’s always been more about friends and fun then about progression. After awhile, that cute little gnome mage in Arc isn’t so funny any more, downing Murmur doesn’t give you the same thrill and even Kara loses its luster. You need more. Other people in the guild need more, and you start thinking, “will we ever see SSC to the end, much less ever see Illidan?” When you get to this point, you either start hemorrhaging members, or you evolve.
For us, it’s time to start taking a crack at SSC and beyond. The problem with our guild is not in numbers. We are not a small guild by any stretch with over 75 members (I would guess) with around 500 characters in the guild. Our problem has always been getting 25 people on at the same time, well geared and ready. Not only that, but as you progress you need to think more and more about specs and raid makeup. We’ve been farming Kara and Gruul while working on ZA, and we are finally getting to the point where SSC and TK could be a possibility. So how are we going to do it?
One thing that we will NOT do is have any kind of raiding requirement. We are still as much a casual guild as a raiding guild. As soon as you bring in hefty requirements, the casual part of the guild could fall to pieces. Because of this, we certainly will not rip through any of the higher end raid content. We will, however, stick to our roots.
We will schedule 2 25-man runs a week to start, in addition to our normal ZA and Kara runs. There will be some very minor guidelines to join the fray, but nothing too strict. We’ll be asking members to focus on one “main” for these runs, and will keep an eye on our numbers through WWS. If a character is severely underperforming, we will take a look at their gear and help them make improvements.
We will maintain all of our old ways of doing things. Casual players are still welcomed with open arms, and we will still run the “lesser” stuff and help out when needed. We are family first and raiders second. It just so happens a lot of people in our family want to have fun raiding!
Will it work? We will see. When I read the articles from the World of Matticus and Of Teeth and Claws, my thought was that in the end, neither was actually talking about a casual raiding guild. One suggests separating the non-raiders off into a separate guild, and both focused HEAVILY on progression. In my mind, that is NOT a casual raiding guild. It’s merely a raiding guild that was once casual. Once you start requiring attendance, penalizing members for non-attendance, or separating non-raiders from the main guild, you are no longer casual. I think both articles are great frameworks for starting a “not so hardcore” raiding guild, but I wouldn’t call them casual.
Entries (RSS)
I have found that even the Best Casual Raiding Guilds are going to fall on one side of the word Casual Raiding, either it will be too casual or too much Raiding. Its hard to find a good mix. In the end these games are to have fun and I found WoW has caused problems with the mid size guilds. I hope in the next expansion they find a better balance.